We are pleased to announce that outgoing President of the European Research Council, Professor Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, will be giving a live interview at the 8ECM.

Professor Bourguignon has been President of the European Research Council since 2014. During his tenure, the ERC has been a flagship component of Horizon 2020, the EU’s current Research Framework Programme, which has brought the council a corresponding budget increase of 60%.

Bourguignon is a mathematician by profession, whose main area of research is differential geometry. His work has focused on the Ricci curvature and its relation to both differential geometry and general relativity. His co-authored monographs include A Spinorial Approach to Riemannian and Conformal Geometry (EMS, 2015) and Mathematics, a Beautiful Elsewhere (Thames and Hudson, 2012), a book on the intersection of mathematics and art, published in conjunction with an exhibition of the same name.

Professor Bourguignon has been affiliated with the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) for most of his career, which, in his words, “has given me a great freedom to pursue my research”. Prior to his presidency of the ERC, Bourguignon was director of the international research institute, Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques (IHÉS) until 2013.

During Bourguignon’s directorship, the IHÉS numbered three Fields medallists among their faculty. Concurrently with his time at both the CNRS and IHÉS, Bourguignon was supported in research and professorial positions by École polytechnique.

As president of the Société Mathématique de France (1990-92), Bourguignon was instrumental in shaping the European Mathematical Society, established in 1990, becoming its second president (1995-98). The achievements of his tenure include founding the Journal of the European Mathematical Society (JEMS), increasing the visibility of the EMS, and boosting support for young mathematicians.

Among Bourguignon’s awards are the Prix Paul Langevin (1987) and the Prix du Rayonnement Français in Mathematical Sciences and Physics from the Académie des Sciences de Paris (1997). In addition, he has been granted several honorary positions, including membership of the London Mathematical Society and the German Association of Mathematicians (DMV), and doctorates from Keio University, Japan, and Nankai University, China.

We look forward to welcoming Professor Bourguignon at the 8th European Congress of Mathematics in Portorož, Slovenia!

Further details will be posted on our website, please follow us here for more news.

On Sunday, 1 September 2019 starts the application term for undergraduate studies (enrolment for the subsequent year, study for graduates and parallel studies) at UP FAMNIT and it lasts until Tuesday, 17 September 2019:

for candidates from EU,

for candidates from NON-EU CITIZENS AND SLOVENE NATIONALS WITHOUT SLOVENE CITIZENSHIP.

The organizers of the 8th European Congress of Mathematics have established a fund that will offer 8ECM Scholarships to support students and mathematicians who wish to participate in the Congress.

The 8ECM Scholarship covers a congress fee waiver and two-star accommodation in the near vicinity of the 8ECM, in student dormitories arranged by the 8ECM organizers.

The Fund’s aim is to encourage participation at the 8ECM for outstanding students and researchers who demonstrate potential and who come from developing countries as defined by the European Mathematical Society, and other countries as determined in the Open Call.

We invite all interested students, Postdoc researchers and Senior researchers to apply via the online registration form. Applicants are required to submit a CV and a motivation letter. Additionally, students should provide two recommendation letters from their professors and a transcript of records.

The deadline for applying and submitting all documents is September 30, 2019.

Please visit the 8ECM website for more information about the Congress and be sure to subscribe to our 8ECM Newsletter, so you won’t miss any updates and new content!

We have created a new website for students, who will study with us and are moving to Koper from abroad!

Whether you are visiting us for a few months, a semester or full studies, you will be able to find information about our offer, necessary paperwork, offered services and some tips about your life in Slovenia.

In addition to the mobility of students and professors, Erasmus+ programme supports also cooperation projects in the field of education. We are pleased to announce that UP FAMNIT has acquired two new projects, in which 16 universities from nine countries will participate.

Within the project Language guidance tool for improving language knowledge –LanGuide we will promote the internationalization of the higher education programmes and the usage of up-to-date IT technologies. The project partners gather 6 universities from five linguistic and geographical parts of Europe that are specialised in language acquisition and software development.

Within the project activities, UP FAMNIT, University of Zadar and University of Rijeka (Croatia), Transilvania University of Brasov (Romania), University of Castilla – La Mancha (Spain) and Mälardalen University (Sweden) will joint develop a common methodology for the preparation of guidelines focused on language for specific purposes (LSP).

The objectives of the project LanGuide are to build an open access students/teachers/administrative staff centered guidance tool for improving language knowledge and supporting the acquisition of language knowledge through the language guidance tool. The developed methodology will be implemented in the preparation of language resources, covering 3 levels of difficulty, for preselected LSP fields for English. The resources will be included in the language guidance tool software and mobile app.

In the other project entitled Establishment of training and research centers and Courses development on Intelligent BigData Analysis in CA/ELBA, which starts in November and will also lasts three years, 10 universities from Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyz Republic will participate.

The project is aimed at creating the opportunities in training of highly profiled specialists in the field of Intelligent Big Data Analysis (IBDA) with different multidisciplinary backgrounds and enabling the access to highly efficient modern IBDA instrumentation based on EU expertise and technologies which will contribute to sustainable development of educational institutions, local business enterprises and society at large.

Proposal aim in general is to improve academic capacity of professionals through developing and implementing multidisciplinary package of module based courses for bachelor, master students and professionals of engineering on Intelligent Big Data Analysis (IBDA) in Central Asia countries via collaboration with the industry.

On Monday, 12 August 2019 starts the third application term for non-EU citizens and Slovene nationals without Slovene citizenship for the enrolment in the undergraduate study programmes at UP FAMNIT and it lasts until 13 September 2019. There are available places for all study programmes, except for Biopsychology and Computer Science (Slovenian version).

FAMNIT and the University of Primorska were represented by BesfortShala, ĐorđeMitrović and RomanSolodukhin. All three were very successfull and brought home three medals: two silvers (Shala in Solodukhin, both 37 points) and one bronze (Mitrović – 27 points).

We are happy to announce that Professor Bojan Mohar will deliver a public lecture at the 8th European Congress of Mathematics!

Bojan Mohar is a Slovenian and Canadian mathematician whose areas of research include algebraic, structural and topological graph theory, and theory of computing. He received his PhD from the University of Ljubljana in 1986 under Tomaž Pisanski.

Mohar’s research studies the interconnections between graphs, topology, geometry, and algebra, as well as graph minors, colorings and nowhere-zero flows. His work in graph theory is extended with developments of algorithmic and computational tools in these areas.

He co-authored Graphs on Surfaces (2001) with Carsten Thomassen, an influential book on topological graph theory, and proved a remarkable theorem that the question whether a given graph embeds in a given closed surface can be answered in linear time. His work in spectral graph theory builds a bridge between graph theory and some other branches of mathematics such as theoretical computer science and operator theory.

In 2010, Mohar received the Institute of Combinatorics and its Applications (ICA) Euler medal for contributions to combinatorial research. The citation reads: “Bojan Mohar’s outstanding research and leadership over a period of thirty years place him as one of today’s foremost discrete mathematicians worldwide. His deep and important contributions have dramatically improved our understanding of the structural properties of graphs.” In 2018 he received the Royal Society of Canada John L. Synge award for outstanding research and a SIAM fellowship for his “contributions to graph theory and algorithms, in particular structural, topological, and algebraic graph theory.” The Republic of Slovenia has also recognized Professor Mohar with two awards for scientific excellence: the Boris Kidrič prize (1990), and, for his work in Canada, he was recognized as the Ambassador of Science of the Republic of Slovenia (2009).

Professor Mohar holds a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Graph Theory at Simon Fraser University, Canada, and is also a professor of Mathematics at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, and a member of the Institute of Mathematics, Physics, and Mechanics, Ljubljana.

We look forward to welcoming professor Mohar at the 8th European Congress of Mathematics in Portorož, Slovenia!

Further details will be posted on our website, please follow us here for more news.

On 11th July, Assist. Prof. Branko Kavšek, PhD (principal investigator on UP FAMNIT) attended a fruitful meeting in Braganca (Portugal), which was the last one in the frame of the Erasmus+ project Da.Re (Data Science Pathways to re-imagine education). Partners from Italy, Portugal, Serbia and United Kingdom discussed about present activities, they analyzed those made in the past and presented final activities. In fact, the project will end in August, when a more detailed report on successfully implemented activities will be published.

The project's general objective is to build, improve and maintain industry-university networking in the field of data science as a means to strengthen Europe's knowledge triangle of research, education and business and to raise awareness of Big Data's potential as a bridge between these worlds.

Maintaining this link is key due to the dynamic nature of Data Science. Continuous improvement and a constant loop between industry and academia for sharing requirements and findings is also fundamental.

More details about the work we have done is available on the project website, where you can find also the Online Training Course and access to the innovative educational and training material prepared for the next generation of data scientists.

On Wednesday, 17 July 2019 starts the second application term for non-EU citizens and Slovene nationals without Slovene citizenship for the enrolment in the Master’s study programmes at UP FAMNIT and it lasts until 29 August 2019. There are available places for all study programmes.

Participants were both researchers and students, which represents an important opportunity for integration between young and more experienced mathematicians. Meetings like this are very important to the scientific community, explained Prof. Colva Roney-Dougal, last year's lecturer: “I think that they are a great way to encourage communication within the community, and to expose both your own students and those from nearby countries to mathematics and mathematicians with different points of view, from around the world. They are also excellent for building links between the more senior mathematicians who were present. And I’m sure that they are also helpful for students when looking for jobs after their PhD.”

During the past nine years, PhD Summer School in Rogla has attracted over 600 researchers and students from all around the world. Many of them keep returning year after year, which clearly shows both the popularity and the quality of this scientific mathematical meeting. Assoc. Prof. Ademir Hujdurović, PhD, member of the scientific and organizational committee, says: “We carefully choose our lecturers, so the classes are always interesting enough for everyone. In the previous years, we have hosted lecturers from all over the world, and many have returned to UP FAMNIT – either for a research visit or to deliver lectures to our students. Everyone loves to come back to Rogla and to Slovenia. «

A special pleasure was also given by the fact that this year's summer school was attended by record number of students. 47 of them came from Algeria, Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republik (4), Germany, Italy (6), Mexico, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia (16), Spain, United Kingdom and USA.

For the Best Student Talk Award, 18 students from 9 countries were competing. Recipient was decided by the committee members: Martin Milanič (University of Primorska, Slovenia), Jeroen Schillewaert (The University of Auckland, New Zeland) and Klara Stokes (Maynooth University, Ireland) and the award was given to Peter Zeman from Charles University in Prague for the talk entitled Testing isomorphism of circular-arc graphs in polynomial time. He received free participation at the next year’s 10th PhD Summer School in Discrete Mathematics.

Between 23rd and 29th June, "9th Slovenian International Conference on Graph Theory" took place in Bled (Bled ’19). The conference is organised every four years and is one of the biggest events in the world in the field of graph theory. From the very beginning, conference organizers have been the most prominent Slovenian researchers in the field of graph theory: prof. Tomaž Pisanski, PhD, prof. Dragan Marušič, PhD, prof. Bojan Mohar, PhD, and prof. Sandi Klavar, PhD.

The main organizer of this year's conference was the IMFM (Institute of Mathematics, Physics and Mechanics) and the organising committee was chaired by prof. Bojan Mohar, PhD. Other institutions cooperated in organisation: DMFA (Society of Mathematicians, Physicists and Astronomers of Slovenia), SDAMS (Slovenian Society for Discrete and Applied Mathematics), UL FMF (University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics), UM FNM (University of Maribor, Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics), UP FAMNIT (University of Primorska, Faculty of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Information Technologies), UP IAM (University of Primorska, Andrej Marušič Institute) and company Abelium d. o. o.

Over 320 mathematicians from 41 different countries participated at the conference. Majority of them came from Slovenia (64), USA (30) and Italy (23). Increasing number of participants is the proof that the Slovene international conference has become one of the most important global conferences in the field of graph theory, which has repeatedly attracted established researchers and prospective young doctoral and postdoctoral students from around the world. It is offering a platform, where they can exchange the most important findings and insight into the most current problems in the field of graph theory.

During the conference, more than 270 lectures were offered, of which 11 were plenary lectures delivered by top mathematicians from all over the world. Among them were also recipients of the most prestigious mathematical awards.

The next conference will take place in 2023, and the next organizer in line is prof. Tomaž Pisanski, PhD, who celebrated his 70th birthday this year. He announced that the organization on his behalf will be succeeded by prof. Primož Potočnik, PhD.

Immediately after the conference, another important event followed. Last weekend, the traditional International Doctoral Summer School from Discrete Mathematics started at Rogla. The 9th edition attracted 77 mathematicians from 19 countries, including university professors, researchers and doctoral students. The summers school offers another important platform for connecting young people and experienced mathematicians.

We are glad to announce that the University of Primorska acquired a new COST action. At the beginning of June, the COST’s governing board, Commitee of Senior Officials approved another COST action, entitled »An integrated approach to conservation of threatened plants for the 21st Century« (CA18201), signed by dr. Živa Fišer Pečnikar, from the Department of Biodiversity UP FAMNIT. Her COST action was confirmed among 40 new COST actions. In the applications, collected by last November, were included 29 institutions from 32 countries.

SUMMARY

Even though plants represent an essential part of our lives offering exploitational, supporting and cultural services, we know very little about the biology of the rarest and most threatened plant species, and even less about their conservation status. Rapid changes in the environment and climate, today more pronounced than ever, affect their fitness and distribution causing rapid species declines, sometimes even before they had been discovered.

Despite the high goals set by conservationists to protect native plants from further degradation and extinction, the initiatives for the conservation of threatened species in Europe are scattered and have not yielded the desired results.

The main aim of this Action is to improve plant conservation in Europe through the establishment of a network of scientists and other stakeholders who deal with different aspects of plant conservation, from plant taxonomy, ecology, conservation genetics, conservation physiology and reproductive biology to protected area's managers, not forgetting social scientists, who are crucial when dealing with the general public.

The main instigator is Slovenia with the network of participating countries: Austria, Finland, France, Greece, Switzerland and United Kingdom.

About COST

COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) is a funding organisation for research and innovation networks. Their Actions help connect research initiatives across Europe and beyond and enable researchers and innovators to grow their ideas in any science and technology field by sharing them with their peers. COST Actions are bottom-up networks with a duration of four years that boost research, innovation and careers.

Click herefor more information about COST programme, mission and strategy.

»What is the next stage of Augmented Reality«

SUMMARY

Augmented Reality (AR) has been studied for more than 20 years. Nowadays we can see a lot of AR applications such as PokemonGO. Some people think that AR technologies are almost completed and it has moved to a practical phase. But it is not true because current AR applications are not ideal style of AR. AR researchers still have to make the next breakthrough. In this talk, I would like to introduce my past works on AR and then explain my idea about what AR researchers have to do for the next breakthrough. After that I will briefly talk about my current research works which I am expecting to make the next breakthrough for AR.

SHORT BIO

Dr. Hirokazu Kato received Dr. Eng. degrees from Osaka University, Japan in 1996.
He has worked for Osaka University and Hiroshima City University and since 2007 he has been working for Nara Institute of Science and Technology.
Dr. Kato has studied about Augmented Reality for more than 15 years.
He developed a vision-based tracking library called the ARToolKit in 1999 which has had a significant impact on the growth of Augmented Reality research.
Dr. Kato received Virtual Reality Technical Achievement Award from IEEE VGTC in 2009 and Lasting Impact Award at the 11th IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality in 2012.

We are happy to announce that Fields medalist Stanislav Smirnov will deliver a public lecture at the 8th European Congress of Mathematics!

Stanislav Smirnov is a Russian mathematician whose research involves complex and geometric analysis, dynamical systems and probability theory. He received his doctorate at Caltech in 1996 under the supervision of Nikolai G. Makarov.

Smirnov has worked on percolation theory, where, in 2001, he proved the formula for the critical percolation crossings, suggested by the physicist John Cardy in 1992. Smirnov's theorem has led to a fairly complete theory for percolation on the triangular lattice, including conformal invariance of its scaling limit, as well as derivation of various dimensions and exponents via its relationship to the Schramm–Loewner evolution introduced by Oded Schramm. Smirnov applied these techniques to other problems, in 2006 establishing conformal invariance of the critical Ising model in two dimensions, a well-known problem related to ferromagnetism.

He has been recognized many times throughout his career. In 1997 he was awarded the Saint Petersburg Mathematical Society Young Mathematician Prize. In 2001 he received the Clay Research Award, the Göran Gustafsson Prize and the Salem Prize (joint with Oded Schramm) for his work in percolation theory. He also received the Rollo Davidson Prize for young probabilists in 2002.

In 2004, Smirnov was awarded the European Mathematical Society Prize for, amongst other results, "the proof of existence and conformal invariance of the scaling limit of crossing probabilities for critical percolation on the triangular lattice. This gives a formula for the limiting values of crossing probabilities, breakthrough in the field, which has allowed for the verification of many conjectures of physicists, concerning power laws and critical values of exponents". In 2010, at the 26th International Congress of Mathematicians in Hyderabad, India, he received a Fields Medal for his work on the mathematical foundations of statistical physics, particularly finite lattice models. His citation read, "for the proof of conformal invariance of percolation and the planar Ising model in statistical physics".

The SJR indicator provides an alternative to the impact factor, as it measures the scientific influence of scholarly journals that accounts for both the number of citations received by a journal and the importance or prestige of the journals where such citations come from. Cites in the most prestigious leading journals therefore have a higher value than cites in lesser-known publications with little impact on a global scale. AMC fields with the best evaluations are: Algebra and Number Theory, Discrete Mathematics and Combinatorics, Geometry and Topology, Theoretical Computer Science.

The AMC journal was established in 2008 by Prof. Dragan Marušič and Prof. Tomaž Pisanski. Together with an enthusiastic team of international editors, they are still managing the journal today.

AMC is published by University of Primorska in collaboration with the Slovenian Society of Discrete and Applied Mathematics, Society of Mathematicians, Physicists and Astronomers of Slovenia and the Institute of Mathematics, Physics and Mechanics. The journal publishes top scientific articles in modern mathematics, especially in the field of discrete mathematics. Articles from algebra, geometry, topology, theoretical computer sciences and combinatorics can also be found in the journal.

Constant improvement of journal's influence demands also increase in quality of published articles. To assure high standard of articles, the editorial board accepts less than a third of received manuscripts and with this success, the submission rate increased and acceptance rate further decreased.

Last Monday, the third edition of Alpine Europe Summer School, which is organized every two years by the University of Primorska and the Oregon State University (USA), has started. In the next two weeks, 16 students from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czech Republic, India, Kazakhstan and the USA will study the sustainability and creation of the built environment, starting in the forest itself and following the value chain all the way through design, manufacturing and construction. Their goal is to provide not only concept and content, but to also facilitate interactions between, and learning among students coming from different countries.

The international group of participants will visit numerous companies and institutions in Slovenia and northern Italy that are focusing on sustainable products from natural materials in their production and design. From 22nd to 24th June they will also enjoy the sea breeze on the Slovenian Littoral.

After first day staying in Ljubljana, their next stops are Gozd Martuljek and Bled, where they will visit the eco-tourist green resort Garden Village. The following day they will continue their tour to the company Riko hiše in Ribnica, which produces ecological wooden prefabricated buildings. On the fourth day, they will go to M Sora in Žiri, where windows exclusively from domestic wood are produced, and in the afternoon they will reach the seaside.

On Friday, the day will start in Korte with a visit to the Logotowood family company, which manually manufactures wooden washbasins and unique furniture. After that it will be time to stop at the University of Primorska, more precisely at UP FAMNIT for a more relaxed meeting with students and the visit to InnoRenew CoE.

After Saturday’s visit to the Olive oil Factory Krožera Franca Marzi in Srgaši and to the Škocjanski zatok Nature Reserve, they will move to the north-west of Slovenia, where they will learn about the characteristics of Bovec and Kobarid. They will also visit the Kobarid Museum, which is dedicated to the events during the First World War on the Isonzo Front. In the mountain region there will be time for discovering the local cheese and have some active time along and in the Soča river.

Next Tuesday, it will be time to jump across the border to Italy. Cortina, Bressanone and Bolzano will be the next stops, while the summer school will end in Venice.

Last year, the University of Primorska, in cooperation with the Oregon State University, have organized the isMCS summer school (which can be found here), which will be hopefully organized also next year.

We wish to all participants a lot of curiosity, interesting discoveries and especially beautiful moments in our country.

Our Mathematics students continue achieving great results in international mathematical competitions. As last year, they have been very successful at the Open International Internet Olympiad.

This time, Famnit was represented by Mirza Krbezlija and Narmina Baghirova (1st year Mathematical Sciences MSc), Daniil Baldouski (3rd year Mathematics BSc), Đorđe Mitrović in Aleksandar Avdalović (2nd year Mathematics BSc), Besfort Shala and Filip Pramenković (1st year Mathematics BSc).
In March, the first round was attended by 6215 students from 157 different universities, in the category »specialized faculty«, where Famnit competes, 719 students were competing.

Đorđe Mitrović, Besfort Shala, Daniil Baldouski and Filip Pramenković have achieved above average results and entered into the 2nd round of the competition, while only Mitrović and Shala moved forward the 3rd round. Both won the silver medal.
In May, the last round was attended by 94 students, of which 27 were in the »specialized faculty« category, where Shala won the 4th place and Mitrović the 6th place.

Besfort Shala explains: »The preparation for competitions is so much different than studying for exams. Contents are different and the way of thinking needs to go in other directions. I made treasure of my experience in high school, where I used to participate to various competitions and therefore I can say that all tasks were above average, but not too difficult – actually it was in line with expectations. For example, the competition in Czech Republic in April was a bigger challenge. «

Đorđe Mitrović added: »This competition was different, but very interesting, because we were solving mathematical problems online. It was crucial to think quickly, using a lot of creativity. This is not a standard competition and therefore is hard to prepare for it. You just need some experience. It was really fun! «

The call for scholarship applications of the Scholarship Fund of the University of Primorska has been published.

Students who would like to apply must submit the requested documentation by Thursday 10 October 2019.

The Scholarship Found of the University of Primorska is managed by the University, while it is supported by national, municipal, private and other financial sources. Special emphasis is given on linking students with prospective employers, who invest in the scholarship fund and also have an option to choose which students they will support with their funds.

UP FAMNIT Center for Cryptography continues to expand its international network of cooperation with institutions and individual researchers. Dr. Samir Hodžić, an active member of the group of mathematicians dealing with cryptography at our faculty, recently started his postdoctoral studies at the Technical University of Denmark. In the next one and half year, he will be doing research in the area of symmetric cryptology for the post-quantum era, with the main focus on the analysis and design of block ciphers that will be resistant to quantum cryptanalytic algorithms.
This is another step towards a successful cooperation between universities, which leads to positive changes in industry and in wider society.

In modern world, intense research activity in the field of cryptography is extremely important, since cryptographic codes protect information from unauthorized access, alterations and other abuses, making the use of cryptography in economy and industry essential on the national and international levels.

Researchers from the University of Primorska have been working for many years and last December they successfully obtained funds for a new research program from the Slovenian Research Agency (ARRS). In the next six years, within the program “Mathematical modelling and encryption: from theoretical concepts to real-life applications”, new and innovative methods of research in the field of mathematics will be developed under the direction of Prof. Enes Pasalic, PhD, expert in symmetric-keycryptography and Head of the UP FAMNIT Centerof Cryptography, who will work with an international and interdisciplinary team of researchers, doctoral and postdoctoral students working at our University and at the Institute InnoRenew CoE.

The University of Primorska received another important acknowledgment: the last results of the international university ranking programme U-Multirank 2019, brought to our university the titleGlobal Top 25 performers in the field of international orientation of study programs. The excellent performance was achieved thanks to UP FAMNIT's study and research areas of mathematics, computerscience and biology.

»U-Multirank« is a multidimensional independent university ranking prepared with seed funding from the European Commission's Erasmus+ programme. It compares the performances of higher education institutions in the following areas: teaching and learning, research, international orientation, regional engagement and knowledge transfer.

As mentioned, U-Multirank assessed three areas that are intensively developed by UP FAMNIT: mathematics, computer science and biology, which are also implemented in our study programmes at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. On the mentioned programmes we register the highest presence of foreign students (from 20 different countries) and researchers from abroad (currently around 20% of our staff).

This year, U-Multirank evaluated 1.711 universities from 96 countries. In the press release, it was pointed out that “open border” universities perform better than universities with low international exchange in the areas of knowledge transfer, research impact and education. They are more successful in engaging and transferring knowledge to industry (39% higher share of publications together with industrial partners), in establishing spinoff companies (80% higher) and in patenting their ideas (2.5 times more), and their research shows higher outreach (36% higher number of top cited publications). Additionally, students of open border universities are more satisfied with their overall learning experience.

One of the proofs that internationalisation of universities increases their quality is shown by the fact that it is precisely the most international area of FAMNIT – mathematics – who helped the University of Primorska to enter famous Shanghai Ranking in the field of Mathematics. In addition, this year our Mathematics was placed on 15th place among 185 evaluated universities in the same field.

European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, Tibor Navracsics, said: »I am pleased to see the latest U-Multirank results which show that EU universities perform very well when education, research and student satisfaction are looked at together. As we work towards creating a European Education Area where everyone gets the best education and can study freely across borders, as well as developing our flagship European Universities initiative, I am sure that U-Multirank will continue to provide valuable information for applicants.«

U-Multirank’s latest results not only give insights on the effects of open borders, but make transparent the detailed performance of universities, so students can make better informed choices about what, or where to study based on what matters most to them. Universities could use U-Multirank data to assess their strengths and weaknesses and find ways to improve. This is made possible by providing users with the world’s largest customisable online rankings that not only focus on research, but the full diversity of the higher education system.

The University of Primorska has published a public tender for Young Researcher candidates in 2019.
The position of Young Researchers will to be trained at University of Primorska Andrej Marušič Institute (UP IAM) and University of Primorska Faculty of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Information technologies (UP FAMNIT) for obtaining a doctorate of science. The research fields are: Mathematics, Psychiatry and Public health (occupational safety).

Candidates must submit their applications till 4 July 2019 by 2 p.m.

Presentations of the mentors and the programs of all positions of Young Researchers at the University of Primorska are available in the table below:

Today, 27 May 2019 starts the second application term for non-EU citizens and Slovene nationals without Slovene citizenship for the enrolment in the undergraduate study programmes at UP FAMNIT and it lasts until 19 July 2019. There are available places for all study programmes, except for Biopsychology and Computer Science (English version).

This week, we had the pleasure to host a group of Psychology students and professors from the University of Augsburg (Minnesota, USA), who have already been our guests two years ago. This time, they were visiting various health institutions around Slovenia with the purpose of getting to know the diverse approaches to the study of mental health. Since at Famnit we are dealing with health topics as interdisciplinary as possible, our activities and research projects were presented by our professors and students from different departments.

Assist. Prof. Peter Rogelj, PhD presented the electroencephalography – EEG, which measures the brain electrical activity with electrodes on the surface of the head. The second lecture was given by Assist. Prof. Mike Burnard, PhD, who talked about the connection between mental health and living environment. He exposed the problem of the amount of time we spent indoors (80–90 % per day) and emphasized the importance of natural materials inside our living areas (which is also one of the research fields at InnoRenew CoE ). Assist. Urša Mars Bitenc, PhD presented the work of our researchers in the field of suicide prevention, which is carried out within the framework of the Slovenian Center for Suicide Research at UP IAM, and Assist. Vesna Jug, PhD presented the Biopsychology study program at Famnit. At the end of the meeting, Biopsyhology student Sara Brglez answered the question of what our students do in their free time with some examples of the activities of the Society of Biopsychology students.

Our guests were very enthusiastic about the presented topics and about the number of activities that are carried out at Famnit.

We are happy and proud to announce that UP FAMNIT Dean, Prof. Klavdija Kutnar, PhD, will be the next rector of the University of Primorska.

At the elections for the rector of the University of Primorska, which took place on 20th and 23rd May, 2019, she has been the only candidate with the support of the majority of the university member faculties and institutes.

Congratulations and many great wishes from all Famnit's students and employees.

This week, we have been invited by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia to attend the Latin American and Caribbean Days international conference, which was held in Ljubljana and Piran within the framework of Bled Strategic Forum.

On Thursday, 22nd May, the event in Piran was attended by representatives of enterprises, scientific and educational institutions. Assist. Prof. Andreja Kutnar, PhD, presented the University of Primorska and the research institute InnoRenew CoE. Both institutions have a rich history of collaborations with institutions and partners from Latin American, especially in the research area.

The meeting was attended also by Famnit's PhD students from Latin America. In fact, we have currently four PhD students from Mexico, one from Argentina, one from Colombia, and one post-doctoral researcher from Mexico. They are all mathematicians, with the exception of one that studies Computer Science. Although the discussion was focused mainly on further cooperation between Slovenia and Latin America, many participants were very interested in the experiences of our students. Even though they come from different countries and territories, they all agreed that the Slovenian coast is a very friendly environment for living, and that UP FAMNIT is an exciting meeting point of scientists from all around the world and an ideal place for study and research at the same time.

We are happy to announce that Fields medalist Andrei Okounkov will deliver a public lecture at the 8th European Congress of Mathematics!

Andrei Okounkov is a Russian mathematician who works in mathematical physics and neighboring areas of representation theory and algebraic geometry.

Enumerative geometry lies at the crossroads of all these fields of mathematics, and a lot of Okounkov's recent work focuses on K-theoretic generalizations of classical questions in enumerative geometry. In particular, a K-theoretic generalization of the Donaldson-Thomas-style counting of curves in algebraic threefolds is an exciting area at the forefront of current research with a conjectural relation to counting membranes of M-theory put forward by Nekrasov and Okounkov, and a geometric representation theory description of it basic building blocks obtained by Okounkov and A.Smirnov. Earlier conjectures of Maulik-Nekrasov-Okounkov-Pandharipande connecting cohomological DT counts with Gromov-Witten theory of algebraic threefolds in many ways shaped the developments of both fields. The proof of the MNOP conjectures for toric varieties by Maulik-Oblomkov-Okounkov-Pandharipande, and the work that followed, extends, among other things, the representation-theoretic understanding of the Gromov-Witten theory of curves (and also of the point) obtained in the early 2000s by Okounkov and Pandharipande.

In 2004, Okounkov was awarded an EMS prize for work that “contributed greatly to the field of asymptotic combinatorics.” In 2006, at the 25th International Congress of Mathematicians in Madrid, Spain, he received the Fields Medal "for his contributions to bridging probability, representation theory and algebraic geometry."

On Thursday, 2nd May 2019, the 3rd edition of the University of Primorska International Mathematics Competition in Kosovo took place in Prishtina and it was attended by 16 pupils from three high schools in Prishtina: »Sami Frashëri«, »Xhevdet Doda« and »Specialized Mathematics Gymnasium«.

After the competition, the participants agreed that the tasks were very difficult, which was expected, as one of the aims of the competition was to offer students the opportunity to cope with more challenging tasks that are similar to the ones present on other international competitions.

The purpose of the competition was also to encourage pupils to study mathematics and challenge mathematically gifted who will consider the possibility to study at UP FAMNIT. With such activities, the activities of popularization of science and of integration between educational institutions at the international level continue.

The competition was organized by UP FAMNIT professors with help from Mathematics students that two years ago proposed to organize the competition.

UP FAMNIT would like to thank everyone who has contributed in making the competition happen. Special thanks go to: Mr. Fatos Osmani – Chief of the Directorate of Education in municipality of Prishtina, Mr. Shemso Berisha – Director of Specialized Mathematics Gymnasium, and all the teachers that prepared the pupils for the competition. And of course, thanks to UP FAMNIT students Eda Kaja, Besfort Shala, and Lisi Qarkaxhija (on the picture bellow).

Slovenian and Croatian mathematicians met again – this time on Friday, 10th May 2019, at the University of Rijeka. Researchers at the UP FAMNIT Cryptography Center attended the bilateral workshop »Designs, Codes, Graphs and Cryptography - an interdisciplinary approach in the analysis of certain discrete structures«, which main purpose was to find links between Boolean functions and the code theory – research topic of the mathematicians in Rijeka.

The program was designed also by Nastja Cepak, PhD, and Samir Hodžić, PhD, while the work was carried out under the direction of Assoc. Prof. Sanja Rukavina (University of Rijeka) and Prof. Enes Pasalic, PhD, Head of the Cryptography Center UP FAMNIT and Head of the ARRS new Research Program P1-0404 »Mathematical modelling and encryption: from theoretical concepts to real-life applications«. The core of this program is mathematics at its purest with cryptology as a bridge to applied mathematics.

About Center for Cryptography UP FAMNIT

Researching in the field of cryptography is extremely important, since cryptographic codes protect information from unauthorized access, alterations and other abuses, making the use of cryptography in economy and industry essential on the national and international levels. Researchers from the University of Primorska are working on that at UP FAMNIT Cryptography Center which aims is to significantly increase the possibilities of cooperation between the university, industry and the wider society, as in the modern society, the exchange and storage of information in an efficient, reliable and safe way is essential.

On Friday, 10th May, Famnit's doors opened to the broader community for the presentation of all our Master's programmes and projects our researchers are active into.

Among the novelties planned for the Academic year 2019/20, the MSc study programme Data Science is definitely the one that is arousing students’ interest. But researchers and professors at UP FAMNIT have a rich history of experience in this interdisciplinary field that leverages knowledge in three key areas: computer science, mathematics, and domain knowledge. And consequently, the Open day was the perfect occasion for presenting the Erasmus+ project Da.Re, in which our researchers are involved since September 2016.

Students, candidates, and also representatives of different business companies that are dealing with data have joined the presentation of the project which was provided by Assist. Prof. Branko Kavšek, PhD, who offered an elaborate explanation of the project goals and activities that have been organized in the past years by project partners – companies and educational organisations from Italy, Serbia, Portugal, Great Britain and Slovenia.

The meeting was intended to start a discussion about the state of arts in the field, therefore after the presentation of the new study programme, students and other participants had the chance to learn not only about the pillar contents of the programme which offers the knowledge for the education of any future scientists, since the most interesting part was when representatives of companies and our data scientists started to share their experiences which evolved in a deep discussion about current trends and the high demand of data science practitioners. In fact, start-ups and well-established companies, along with researchers and policy makers, increasingly rely on data to drive and support decision making. As a consequence, data scientists are valued in various employment environments such as research institutions, IT companies, banks, insurance companies, transport organizations, and other businesses which produce data in increasing quantities.

This is why it is crucial that companies and educational institutions run strong cooperation in order to design new trends and provide results as the ones offered by Da.Re.

If you are interested in studying at UP FAMNIT or you are still undecided about your postgraduate studies, come to our Info day for Master's and PhD studies, which will take place on Friday, 10 May at UP FAMNIT!

This year teaching staff and students will not only present you our the postgraduate programs – you will have the chance to taste how it really is studying at UP FAMNIT.

PROGRAMME

From 15:30: Meetings with professors and programme coordinators, info-point for application and enrollment procedure.

We are pleased to inform that UP FAMNIT Dean, Prof. Klavdija Kutnar, PhD, has been confirmed as the only candidate to the Rector of the University of Primorska.

On 29 April 2019, the election committee examined all the received complete candidate proposals and confirmed the official list of candidates. Three members of the University of Primorska (Faculty of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Information Technologies, Institute Andrej Marušič and Faculty of Education) nominated Prof. Klavdija Kutnar, while Senates of the Faculty of Humanities, Faculty of Tourism Studies and Faculty of Heath Sciences voted to support Prof. Kutnar candidacy.

All eligible voters (University professors, researchers, assistants and associates, students and other employees) will be able to vote during early elections on 20th May or on regular elections on 23rd May.

Congratulations to our Dean for the hard work and for having the support of UP members.

Rector of the University of Primorska, prof. Dragan Marušič, PhD, made a decision to call the election for the members of the Management Board of the University of Primorska (representatives of the University of Primorska).

Elections will be implemented in line with the provisions set in the University Statutes and Rules on Electing Bodies of the University of Primorska.

Regular elections for the members of the Management Board (representatives of the University of Primorska) will take place on Wednesday, 12 June 2019 between 9 am and 4 pm, while early voting will be possible on 7 June 2019 from 9 am until noon.

Candidates are invited to check our programme’s presentation and visit us on 10 May 2019 at 16.00 during the Open day! The exact Open day’s programme will be published later in the section Education/ Enrolment.

At its 39th regular meeting, the Senate of the University of Primorska made a decision to announce regular elections for the rector of the University of Primorska for the next mandate, which will last from 23 November 2019 until 22 November 2023.

Simultaneously with the decision, the Senate also announced the electoral calendar. Regular elections will take place on Thursday, 23 May 2019. The elections will be managed and implemented by the voting and election committee and electoral boards (returning officers/tellers). In line with the decision, eligible candidates must be full professors, who are employed at the University of Primorska full-time and who fulfil all of the conditions defined in the Statutes base of the University of Primorska.

Candidates can submit their application between 27 March and 26 April 2019 by 12 noon.

All candidates will make public presentations by 15 May 2019. Early voting will be possible on 20 May, and regular elections will be implemented three days later. Results and a potential call for a second round of elections will be announced on 24 May. In the case of a second round of elections, early voting will be on 3 June, regular elections will be on 6 June and results will be announced 13 days later, i.e. 19 June.

At this year's event, 145 students from 35 European universities competed. In the first category (for 1st and 2nd year students or under 22 years of age), Famnit was represented by Đorđe Mitrović (2nd year of Mathematics), Eva Siladji and Besfort Shala (both 1st year of Mathematics), in the second category our Faculty was represented by Roman Solodukhin (2nd year of Mathematical Sciences).

Mitrović, Shala and Solodukhin received the certificate of a successful participant.

Congratulations to our students and we wish them many successful performances!

More information about the Call for enrolment 2019/20 and the application procedure is available on our website in the section Education/ Enrolment.

Candidates (SLOVENE CITIZENS AND EU CITIZENS) can apply in three terms:

first application term: from 8 April to 29 August 2019,

second application term: from 13 to 18 September 2019,

third application term: from 25 to 26 September 2019 until 12:00.

Candidates (NON-EU CITIZENS AND SLOVENE NATIONALS WITHOUT SLOVENE CITIZENSHIP) can apply in four terms:

first application term: from 8 April to 1 July 2019,

second application term: from 17 July to 29 August 2019,

third application term: from 13 to 18 September 2019,

fourth application term: from 25 to 26 September 2019 until 12:00.

Candidates are invited to check our programme’s presentation and visit us on 10 May 2019 during the Open day! The exact Open day’s programme will be published later in the section Education/ Enrolment.

The 2019 Meeting of Presidents of the European Mathematical Society was held on March 23 - 24, 2019 in TU Berlin, following a kind invitation from the German Mathematical Society (DMV) and the International Association of Applied Mathematics and Mechanics (GAMM).

EMS Meetings of Presidents is an annual event, held for presidents of more than 100 national organizations and mathematical research institutions, in order to advance the networking and research in mathematics.

As part of the meeting, prof. Tomaž Pisanski, 8ECM Organising Committee Chair and prof. Klavdija Kutnar, dean UP FAMNIT and 8ECM Organising Committee Deputy-Chair, presented updates on the progress for the 8th European Congress of Mathematics, held July 5 – 11, 2020 in Portorož, Slovenia.

They also met with prof. Volker Mehrmann, EMS President, to discuss the upcoming activities for the 8ECM.

Prof. Mehrmann is a professor at the Institute of Mathematics at TU Berlin since 2000, his research is in the area of numerical mathematics, particularly numerical linear algebra and control theory. He assumed his duties as the EMS President in January this year and is appointed to the position of president for four years.

A Scientific Committee (SC) meeting was held 6 – 7 February, 2019 in Hotel St. Bernardin, Portorož, Slovenia with the presence of all SC members and presided by Maria J. Esteban (CNRS and Université Paris-Dauphine).

The Science Committee was appointed by the EMS (European Mathematical Society) to select speakers for the plenary and invited lectures at the upcoming 8th European Congress of Mathematics. On Wednesday, February 6, 2019, prof. dr. Dragan Marušič, Rector of the University of Primorska and prof. dr. Tomaž Pisanski, 8ECM Organizing Committee Chair, welcomed the SC with some introductory remarks.

Following introductions, the participants decided on the final list of speakers for the 8ECM Plenary and Invited lectures, while they also had the opportunity to see the 8ECM venue at the Congress Centre and the Faculty of Tourism Studies – Turistica, where some of the programme sessions will be held.

Scientific Committee Chair:

Maria J. Esteban - CNRS and Université Paris-Dauphine

Scientific Committee Members:

Luigi Ambrosio - Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa

Tadeusz Januszkiewicz - Polish Academy of Science

Barbara Kaltenbacher - University of Klagenfurt

Alexander Kuznetsov - Steklov Mathematical Institute

Halil Mete Soner - ETH Zürich

Péter Pál Pálfy - Hungarian Academy of Sciences

Tomaž Pisanski - University of Primorska

Pavel Pudlák - Institute of Mathematics, Czech Academy of Sciences

Tudor Stefan Ratiu - Shanghai Jiao Tong University

Oliver Riordan - University of Oxford

Zeev Rudnick - Tel-Aviv University

Valeria Simoncini - Università di Bologna

Stefaan Vaes - K.U.Leuven

Aad van der Vaart - Leiden University

Joachim Weickert - Saarland University

For the first time in the history of European mathematical congresses, Slovene mathematicians will be among the invited lecturers, namely three: academician prof. dr. Franc Forstnerič as a plenary speaker and dr. Andrej Bauer and dr. Špenka Špenko as invited speakers.

The project will investigate several key problems within pure and algorithmic graph theory, with a focus on graph invariants and graph classes. It will be developed along three interconnected research lines:

conditions for the existence of a function bounding one invariant in terms of another one,

and the development of a unifying framework for generalizations of chordality.

Progress on these problems is expected to be obtained using an effective combination of various complementary concepts and techniques suitable for the study of graph classes such as: graph decompositions, graph width parameters, minimal separators, graph minors, extremal graph theory.

Applicants must possess a PhD in a relevant area and should show evidence of excellence in mathematics or theoretical computer science.Expertise in structural and algorithmic graph theory is required, including a good knowledge of various aspects of graph theory, algorithms, and complexity theory. The successful candidate will be part of the Departments of Mathematics at IAM and FAMNIT, University of Primorska, and will work under the guidance of Associate Professor Martin Milanic.

Terms and conditions:

- The position is for two years, with the possibility of renewal for one additional year. By default, the starting date is September 1, 2019.
- The position comes with a teaching load of one course per semester at bachelor and/or master level programs (on topics related to Discrete Mathematics, Graph Theory, Mathematical Programming etc.) offered by FAMNIT.
- There will be a possibility of co-supervision of a PhD student starting October 2019 and a possibility of collaboration within bilateral research projects.
- The salary and the length of the contract depend on the academic title into which the candidate can be elected following the university rules, https://www.upr.si/sl/resources/files//univerza/interni-akti/merila-za-izvolitve-v-nazive.pdf (in Slovene). For example, for election into academic title Assistant Professor and Research Associate, one of the key necessary conditions is that the total number of papers published by the candidate in SCI journals, each paper divided by the number of authors, is at least 2.5.

Deadline & Application process:

Applications will be considered on a rolling basis until June 30, 2019, or until the position is filled. Priority will be given to applications received by April 30, 2019.
Starting date: negotiable but preferably not later than October 1, 2019.

To apply, please send the following documents in electronic form to Martin Milanic (martin.milanic@upr.si) with the subject line "Koper Postdoc 2019" in the Subject field:

Curriculum Vitae,

Publication List,

Research Statement,

Copies of three recent papers of preprints,

Names and e-mail addresses of at least three persons who can be contacted for reference (and have agreed to be contacted).

It is with great pleasure that we announce a sponsorship contract was signed between the Slovenian Insurance Association, GIZ and the UP Faculty of Mathematics, Science and Information Technology on Friday, March 22, 2019. The Slovenian Insurance Association thus became the head sponsor of the 8ECM, which will be hosted by the University of Primorska, in collaboration with all active mathematical institutions in Slovenia, from 5 to 11 July 2020 in Portorož.

The Slovenian Insurance Association will have a chance to participate on Career Day at the 8ECM, where they will have access to the best international staff in the field of actuarial and financial mathematics. These certainly will not be lacking, since we expect up to 2,000 scientists, researchers and students from the field of mathematics in Portorož next year.

The 8ECM will host great names in mathematics, including a Fields medalist, Sir Vaughan Jones. Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, President of the ERC - European Research Council has also confirmed his participation.

European congresses of mathematics are held every four years and so far have been hosted by European capitals like Paris, Budapest, Barcelona, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Krakow and Berlin. This is why hosting the next European Congress of Mathematics in Slovenia is undoubtedly a great honor and opportunity, both for Slovenian mathematics, as well as for the University of Primorska and all participating institutions.

The importance of this event was also recognized by His Excellency Mr. Borut Pahor, the President of the Republic of Slovenia, with his honorary patronage.

We look forward to cooperation with the Slovenian Insurance Association and would like to thank them for their sponsorship for the 8th European Congress of Mathematics!

In the next 3 years, the project will investigate several key problems within pure and algorithmic graphtheory, with a focus on graph invariants and graph classes. In fact, despite a number of recent breakthrough developments in the area, many deep and challenging questions remain. The final goal of the project is the development of new tools for a deep and algorithmically useful mathematical analysis of the structure of graphs in hereditary classes. Its impact will be an improved fundamental understanding of the boundaries of tractability for several practically relevant graph optimization problems.

The Slovenian Research Agency co-finances the so called adapted projects which were positively evaluated in ERC calls for proposals but not selected for funding, with the purpose of providing the applicants with the conditions to improve their own scientific excellence and the original idea of the research project. ERC Consolidator Grants are designed to support excellent Principal Investigators at the career stage at which they may still be consolidating their own independent research team or programme. Applicant Principal Investigators must demonstrate the ground breaking nature, ambition and feasibility of their scientific proposal.

All information about the project and about our researchers are available on this website.

In July 2020, scientific events will bring together scientists from all over Europe to our region

In July 2020, two scientific events will be happening at the same time in our region. We will host the 8th European Congress of Mathematics with up to 2,000 researchers and students from various fields of mathematics, while close-by Trieste will host ESOF 2020 – Euroscience Open Forum, where over 5,000 researchers, educators, entrepeneurs, policy makers and journalists and from all over Europe are expected to attend.

Organizing committees of both events recognized this overlap as a unique opportunity for cooperation and organized a meeting on Friday, 22 February. Rector of the University of Primorska, Prof. Dr. Dragan Marušič and rector of the University of Trieste, Prof. Dr. Maurizio Fermeglia agreed that cooperation will benefit both events and enrich the scientific beat in the region.

Prof. Dr. Tomaž Pisanski, chair of the 8ECM organising committee, and Prof. Dr. Stefano Fantoni and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Bruno Della Vedova from the Fondazione Internazionale Trieste – FIT, which is organising the ESOF 2020, attended the meeting as well. They highlighted some of the advantages of joint cooperation between events and agreed that they will undoubtedly strengthen cross border cooperation and leave a great impact in the region in the upcoming year.

ESOF will bring together scientists from various fields such as computing, sustainable development, science and humanities. As part of the event, a Festival of Science will take place from June 27 to July 11, 2020, hosting various theatre performances, concerts, street events, exhibitions and much more. A varied accompanying program can also be expected from 5 to 11 July 2020 in Portorož, when the University of Primorska will host the 8ECM.

We can expect coordination of joint initiatives will continue as early as April 16 2019 in Vipava, where the Slovene-Italian Research Day will be held. Organisers of both events will also participate and present in more detail joint steps in cooperation and a vision for the realization of the 8th European Congress of Mathematics and the Open Forum of European Science.

We would like to inform all interested students that an additional Erasmus+ open call for practical training for students was published for the current academic year 2018/2019 (contract year 2017).

The deadline for applications is open until there are available funds but until 4 March 2019 at the latest. Students submit their application for the exchange through the SIS system in the "Apply for Exchange" menu.

The application must include:

online application form (in the SIS system),

form Learning Agreement for Traineeship signed by the student, the coordinator of the study program at the home faculty and the responsible persons at the visiting institution,